Tomato Pests and Diseases

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is the most important fresh and processed fruit-vegetable worldwide. It is grown in all climates from temperate through to tropical and over a range of scales and situations, from a few plants in a subsistence homestead, to large open-field production for processing, and through to very intensive protected cultivation for fresh consumption, where climate, including CO2 concentrations, are adjusted to optimize production and quality. Although the Working Group Tomato Pests and Diseases addresses the “diseases” of tomato in the broadest sense covering abiotic and biotic stresses, the focus is on the plant pathogenic microorganisms, nematodes, viruses and viroids. Interests in the Working Group are wide, for example:

fundamental aspects of research on the fine detail of interactions between pathogens and tomato plants, pathogen diversity, taxonomy, evolution, diagnosis and the effects of climate change,
selection and breeding for resistance,
applied aspects of disease prevention and control using traditional means such as pesticides, biocontrol agents, protected cultivation, integrated management packages, and newer innovative methods, including the use of nanomaterials and small RNAs.

The Working Group is the ideal forum for the interaction of tomato pathology students and researchers and crop protection practitioners from academia and from public and private sector research organizations and industry, through the symposia that it organises.